Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera

Gobbi, Tito;
Callas, Maria;
Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala;
Zaccaria, Nicola;
Chorus of Teatro alla Scala;
Di Stefano, Giuseppe;
Votto, Antonino;
Barbieri, Fedora;
Ercolani, Renato;
Maionica, Silvio;
Giordano, Enzo;
Ratti, Eugenia

8.111278-79

Votto’s 1956 mono recording, with voices set close but with a fair amount of space round them, is among the best of the sets with Callas from La Scala, and the CD focuses its qualities the more sharply. Cast from strength, with all the principals—notably Gobbi and Giuseppe di Stefano—on top form, this is indispensable for Callas’s admirers.
However, Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfer for Naxos immaculately preserves the recording with plenty of bloom on the voices, and there seems no reason to prefer the EMI set which is still at full price, especially when the Naxos documentation is excellent. • Penguin Guide, January 2009

CD x 2

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

02-01-2008

747313327829